Add Easy Texture to Your Hat

I am not really a person who wears hats, but there’s something about the depths of January that makes me want to knit hats. They’re great fast projects and actually are really helpful to keep you warm (I’ve lately taken to wearing one inside the house when I’m super cold, which is often when it’s actually cold outside).

If you’re in the market for a new hat to knit this year, allow me to offer Winter Dusk by Andrea Tong.

This DK weight hat is worked from the bottom up in the round and uses puff stitches to add easy texture, and it comes in four sizes. A DK weight hat would actually be great for wearing in the house (or office, or wherever you happen to be these days) because it’s not too heavy. Or if you have a lot of hair and don’t like to wear full hats, you can leave off the very top of the hat and make it a messy bun hat instead.

The pattern is available on Ravelry, or you can check it out at Two Sheeps. Apparently this pattern was part of their yarn calendar last year (which I did not know was a thing; this year’s calendar is a PDF only but you can check it out here).

You can also buy a kit from Two Sheeps that includes the pattern and the yarn. The yarn is from Hidden Pond Yarn and it’s called Ski Lodge at Dusk. It’s a baby alpaca, silk and cashmere blend, which sounds just like the sort of thing I’d like to have on my head right about now.

No matter where or how you buy it, the proceeds from the pattern sales will be donated to Knit the Rainbow, a charitable organization that provides handmade garments to unhoused LGBTQ+ youth. You can learn more about that organization here.

[Photo: Andrea Tong]

Stitch a Sweater with Stripes of Color and Texture

Stitch a Textured Cardigan with Nydia

Striped Textured Hat Baby Knitting Pattern

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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